This application relies for priority upon Korean Patent Application No. 1999-55231, filed on Dec. 6, 1999, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The present invention relates to a semiconductor process system and, more particularly, to a coating and developing process system.
In a photolithographic process of a semiconductor device and a liquid crystal display device, a desired circuit pattern is formed by coating a resist on a semiconductor wafer and a substrate for a liquid crystal display, exposing the coated resist to light, and developing the exposed resist with a developing solution. In the developing process, a carrier gas (pressurized N2 gas) is first introduced into a tank containing the developing solution. The developing solution is sent out from the tank by the gas pressure by way of a supply line to a nozzle. Finally, the developing solution is expelled from the nozzle onto the substrate. The related technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,307, entitled xe2x80x9cRESIST PROCESSING METHOD AND RESIST PROCESSING SYSTEMxe2x80x9d, issued to Yuko Kiba et al., issued on Feb. 2, 1999.
A coating and developing process system includes a process solution spray nozzle, and a cleaning solution spray nozzle which sends out cleaning solution (e.g., ultra pure water) in order to clean an external circumferential region of a substrate. However, because the process solution spray nozzle and the cleaning solution spray nozzle are operated by respectively different drivers, the coating and developing system needs a space for installing each driver. This leads to rise a in the production cost.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a coating and developing process system of which one actuator can drive all kinds of spray nozzles.
The coating and developing process system includes a chuck for mounting a substrate, at least one process solution spray nozzle for sending out coating and develop solutions onto the substrate mounted by the chuck, a cleaning solution spray nozzle for sending out cleaning solution onto he mounted substrate, an actuator for selecting one of the nozzles and then moving the selected one to a top of the substrate, and a controller for controlling the actuator.
The coating and developing process further includes a process solution spray nozzle port in which at least one process solution spray nozzle is installed, and a carrier for carrying the port within a driving range of the actuator. The process solutions include a photoresist solution and a developing solution.
According to the coating and developing process system, one actuator can drive the different spray nozzles. Therefore, it is possible to save space and production cost with the system.
While the above advantages of the present invention have been described, other inherent advantages, objects, and uses of the present invention will become evident to those skilled in the art based on the following detailed description of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.